The NY Times is reporting Indiana had a three way going with NY and Golden State

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The NY Times is reporting Indiana had a three way going with NY and Golden State

This I found very interesting. I would have liked to know who was getting what.

The Warriors apparently were not interested in Kurt Thomas because they have a power forward, Troy Murphy, playing well. The Knicks were exploring options to trade Mutombo and Thomas for Nick Van Exel and Dampier as part of a three-way deal that involved Indiana's Austin Croshere, but negotiations died.

REENBURGH, N.Y., Feb. 19 — Isiah Thomas, whose name has been synonymous with trades, firings and hirings in his first two frantic months as the Knicks' president, ran out of time and viable offers Thursday before he could make one more blockbuster deal before the 3 p.m. deadline.

Rasheed Wallace went to Detroit and Erick Dampier stayed at Golden State. The Warriors did not want to give up Dampier and the Knicks did not have the players whose contracts expire at the end of the season who the Hawks wanted for Wallace, the player Thomas coveted.

"He was a big fish on the market," Thomas said of Wallace at the Knicks' practice facility. "We did everything without tearing up the core of our team to try to get him."

The Knicks will go forward with the team Thomas has aggressively reconstructed, hoping to make two more additions. If Denver does not claim Michael Doleac off waivers on Friday, he would want to re-sign with the Knicks as a free agent, less than a week after they traded him to Atlanta. Thomas is also pursuing Vin Baker, who cleared waivers on Wednesday.

"I didn't feel it was necessary to wait for the trading deadline to do something," Thomas said. "I felt like we got our work done early. The trades that were out there to make, we made them, but not only did we make them, we improved ourselves and got ourselves better quickly."

Thomas said he spent most of Thursday fielding calls about his own players, presumably Kurt Thomas, Dikembe Mutombo and Penny Hardaway.

"It was very rewarding experience today to be on the other end where I was the one saying no, as opposed to the one begging," Thomas said with a smile.

The Knicks (26-29) are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference entering Friday's game against Utah at Madison Square Garden.

"When you talk about assets, if you look at the assets we have and the assets that went for Rasheed, it wasn't an asset deal in terms of player talent," Thomas said. "It was a financial deal."

The Knicks were believed to be offering Atlanta Mutombo (who has another year with $4.5 million left), Kurt Thomas (who will most likely opt out of his contract after this season), Shandon Anderson (three years and $23 million left) and possibly Othella Harrington and Frank Williams.

The Warriors apparently were not interested in Kurt Thomas because they have a power forward, Troy Murphy, playing well. The Knicks were exploring options to trade Mutombo and Thomas for Nick Van Exel and Dampier as part of a three-way deal that involved Indiana's Austin Croshere, but negotiations died.

"I think at the end of the day, he was a guy that probably decided that they didn't want to trade," Thomas said of the 6-foot-11 Dampier. "When people such as him and Wallace are being discussed in such a public way, you want to be included in those situations, not to say that you're going to do anything."

Thomas's last trade was on Sunday, when he sent Keith Van Horn to Milwaukee for Tim Thomas and acquired Nazr Mohammed from Atlanta. The Knicks included Doleac in the Atlanta deal under the assumption that the Hawks would waive him.

When Utah received Tom Gugliotta in a trade with Phoenix on Thursday, it sent the Jazz over the salary cap so they could not claim Doleac off waivers. The Denver Nuggets, still under the salary cap, were inquiring about Doleac on Thursday.

"He's expressed to everyone since the day that he was let go that he wanted to come back and we expressed to him that we wanted him back," Thomas said of Doleac. "He's a big part of what we do and what we're trying to do."

Doleac's jump shooting clicked in pick and rolls with Stephon Marbury, while Baker, who could be a backup center, is a low-post presence the Knicks could use.

"When guys are floating around the fringes like that, that's the only way we're going to get them," Thomas said. "Sit down and talk to them and see if they fit what we're doing." But Thomas added that he had not sat down with Baker.

For more than a week, the players whom Thomas had proposed in deals were on edge, concerned about their future to the point of distraction, Mutombo said. "That's part of the business when you're in a turnaround situation," Thomas said.

Now the Knicks can exhale and continue absorbing the five new players they have added in the past seven weeks.

REBOUNDS

ALLAN HOUSTON has missed eight straight games rehabilitating his knees. The earliest he could play is Tuesday, but he is doubtful. "It's just not good enough," he said. "I don't want to go out there and play when I haven't even scrimmaged."

Reports from ESPN and two New York newspapers that the Knicks were working seriously on a deal to send Kurt Thomas, Dikembe Mutombo and Shandon Anderson to Golden State for center Erick Dampier and Nick Van Exel had no basis in fact.

From the Warriors' perspective, an NBA source said, it was laughable because it wasn't going to happen unless the Knicks could send them three contracts that came off the cap.